Benjamin Hazard Field
Field, by Daniel Huntington, 1875
18th President of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York
In office
1870–1870
Preceded byJames William Beekman
Succeeded byRichard Edwards Mount Jr.
Personal details
Born(1814-05-05)May 5, 1814
Yorktown, New York, U.S.
DiedMarch 17, 1893(1893-03-17) (aged 78)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Spouse
Catherine Matilda Van Cortlandt de Peyster
​
​
(m. 1838; died 1886)​
RelationsCortlandt F. Bishop (grandson)
Children2
Signature

Benjamin Hazard Field (May 2, 1814 – March 17, 1893)[1] was an American merchant philanthropist.

Early life

Field was born on May 2, 1814, at the Field home in Yorktown in Westchester County.[2] He was one of three sons born to Hazard Field (1764–1845) and his second wife, Mary (née Bailey) Field (1780–1832),[3] who married in 1806.[4] His father was previously married to Frances "Fanny" Wright June.[5]

His paternal grandparents were John Field and Lydia (née Hazard) Field,[6] who had sixteen children, of which his father Hazard was the oldest.[5]

Career

After schooling in Westchester and at North Salem Academy, he moved to New York and entered the mercantile business of his uncle, Hickson W. Field (grandfather of Princess di Triggiano Brancaccio,[7] lady in waiting to the Queen of Italy),[8][9] at 170-176 John Street. At the age of 18, Field became a partner in 1832. After his uncle retired in 1838, Field assumed control of the entire business, rapidly gaining "both fortune and fame."[10] Field eventually retired from the business, which his son Cortlandt joined in 1861, and renamed Cortlandt de P. Field & Co. in 1865.[5] He fully retired from business in 1875.[11]

In 1863, Field became vice-president of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, later serving as president in 1884.[11] He was a founder of the New York Free Circulating Library and became involved with the New York Dispensary, the Roosevelt Hospital, the New York Institute for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, and the Home for Incurables in the Bronx which Field helped found in 1866, serving as its first president.[10] He was largely responsible for the Farragut Monument in Madison Square Park (an outdoor bronze sculpture of David Farragut by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens on an exedra designed by architect Stanford White).[5]

In 1870, he became the 16th President of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York.[12] Field was a member of the New-York Historical Society, serving as its treasurer, vice president, and president beginning in 1885.[2]

Personal life

On January 19, 1838, Field was married to Catherine Matilda Van Cortlandt de Peyster (1818–1886).[13] Catherine was the daughter of Frederic de Peyster and Helen Livingston (née Hake) de Peyster. She was the aunt of author and philanthropist John Watts de Peyster (through her brother Frederic de Peyster) and Frederic James de Peyster (through her brother James Ferguson De Peyster).[14] Together, they lived on the northern edge of Madison Square Park at 21 East 26th Street[10] and were the parents of:[8]

Field died on March 17, 1893, in New York City.[1] After a funeral at Grace Church, he was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.[20]

Descendants

Through his daughter Florence, he was the grandfather of Cortlandt Field Bishop, a pioneer aviator, balloonist, book collector, and traveler.[21] and David Wolfe Bishop Jr.[22]

References

  1. 1 2 "Death of Benjamin H. Field.; Successful in Business and Prominent as a Philanthropist" (PDF). The New York Times. March 18, 1893. p. 1. Retrieved August 23, 2023.
  2. 1 2 "Benjamin Hazard Field (1814-1893)". nyhistory.org/. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  3. ↑ Burke, Arthur Meredyth (1991). The Prominent Families of the United States of America. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 241. ISBN 9780806313085. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  4. ↑ Scharf, John Thomas (1886). The History of Westchester County: New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City. Philadelphia: L.E. Preston & Co. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Pierce, Frederick Clifton (1901). Field Genealogy: Being the Record of All the Field Family in America, Whose Ancestors Were in this Country Prior to 1700. Emigrant Ancestors Located in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Virginia. All Descendants of the Fields of England, Whose Ancestor, Hurbutus de la Field, was from Alsace-Lorraine. W.B. Conkey Company. p. 563. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  6. ↑ The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York: History, Customs, Record of Events, Constitution, Certain Genealogies, and Other Matters of Interest. V. 1-. Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York. 1905. p. 58. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Princess di Triggiano Brancaccio (d. 1909)". nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  8. 1 2 Cortlandt de Peyster Field. The University Magazine. 1893. pp. 877–878. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  9. ↑ "Princess Brancaccio Dead.; Was Elizabeth Hickson-Field of New York, and Married the Prince in 1870" (PDF). The New York Times. Rome (published April 12, 1909). April 11, 1919. p. 7. Retrieved August 23, 2023.
  10. 1 2 3 Miller, Tom (January 29, 2018). "The Lost Benjamin H. Field House - 21 East 26th Street". daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com. Daytonian in Manhattan. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  11. 1 2 Johnson, Rossiter; Brown, John Howard (1904). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. The Biographical Society. p. 20. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  12. ↑ Youngs, Florence Evelyn Pratt; Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York (1914). Portraits of the Presidents of The Society, 1835-1914. New York, NY: Order of the Society. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  13. 1 2 Aitken, William Benford (1912). Distinguished Families in America, Descended from Wilhelmus Beekman and Jan Thomasse Van Dyke. Knickerbocker Press. Retrieved May 3, 2017.
  14. ↑ "Frederic De Peyster Dead.; the End of a Useful and Honorable Career" (PDF). The New York Times. August 19, 1882. p. 5. Retrieved August 23, 2023.
  15. ↑ "C. De Peyster Field Dies Suddenly at 78; Merchant, Banker, and Philanthropist is Stricken atHis Summer Home. Gave Library to Peekskill; Member of Old Knickerbocker Family Endowed Field Home for Aged and Respectable Poor" (PDF). The New York Times. August 10, 1918. p. 7. Retrieved August 23, 2023.
  16. ↑ Chisholm, William Garnett (1914). Chisholm Genealogy: Being a Record of the Name from A. D. 1254; with Short Sketches of Allied Families. Knickerbocker Press. pp. 54-55. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
  17. ↑ "Mrs. Parsons Dies at Her Country Home; Widow of Noted Lawyer Passes Away After Several Weeks Illness in Pittsfield". The New York Times. Pittsfield, Massachusetts (published October 16, 1922). October 15, 1922. p. 15. Retrieved August 23, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ Hicks, Paul DeForest (September 27, 2016). John E. Parsons: An Eminent New Yorker in The Gilded Age. Easton Studio Press, LLC. ISBN 9781632260741. Retrieved May 3, 2017.
  19. ↑ Greene, Richard Henry; Stiles, Henry Reed; Dwight, Melatiah Everett; Morrison, George Austin; Mott, Hopper Striker; Totten, John Reynolds; Pitman, Harold Minot; Forest, Louis Effingham De; Ditmas, Charles Andrew; Mann, Conklin; Maynard, Arthur S. (1916). The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. p. 192. Retrieved May 3, 2017.
  20. ↑ "Funeral of Benjamin H. Field" (PDF). The New York Times. March 21, 1893. p. 8. Retrieved August 23, 2023.
  21. ↑ "Cortlandt Bishop, Art Patron, Dead. Chief Owner of the American Anderson Galleries Here Stricken in Lenox". The New York Times. March 31, 1935. p. 36. Retrieved September 17, 2012. Cortlandt Field Bishop, principal owner and former president of the American Art Association-Anderson Galleries
  22. ↑ "A Day's Weddings.; Bishop -- Bend". The New York Times. October 8, 1899. p. 7. Retrieved August 23, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
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